LICENCING

The UK government website provides a Licence Finder tool for any licences that you may need with results for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Other than food business registration and premises approval discussed above, the most common licences businesses will need for direct sales are alcohol licences and market stall licences, which you must apply for from your local authority if you are trading from a market stall in England or Wales. However, it is worth checking the licence finder to be sure that you have all the necessary licences you need for your enterprise, and are making use of any exemptions that you are eligible for.

Alcoholic drinks
If your business involves selling alcohol, you must have a licence or other authorisation from a licensing authority - usually a local council.

Generally, the premises that is selling the alcohol will need a licence (even temporary and mobile ones) and a designated premises supervisor will need a personal licence.

More information on alcohol licencing can be found here:

England and Wales: www.gov.uk/guidance/alcohol-licensing.

Scotland: https://www.gov.scot/publications/alcohol-licensing-guidance/.

Northern Ireland: www.nidirect.gov.uk/articles/selling-alcohol-licensed-premises-and-registered-clubs.

Producers of alcoholic drinks must also be registered for duty with HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC). Registered producers must pay duty on their products and comply with a wide range of record-keeping requirements. For more information, go to www.gov.uk/topic/business-tax/alcohol-duties.

You can apply for an exemption from registration if you make, or expect to make, less than 7,000 litres of cider or perry in a rolling 12-month period.

Small-scale beer producers may be entitled to reduced rates if you produced no more than 60,000 hectolitres of beer in the previous calendar year. The reduced rates are part of the Small Breweries’ Relief scheme and have a sliding scale. Reductions start at 50% for production of 5,000 hectolitres or less and decrease for larger production volumes.

Producers that supply alcohol to other businesses must also be registered with HMRC’s Alcohol Wholesaler Registration Scheme (www.gov.uk/government/publications/excise-notice-2002-alcohol-wholesaler-registration-scheme).

All drinks with an ABV (alcohol by volume) of more than 1.2% must be labelled with their alcoholic strength.